(2013-09-27)
New Book purchase: Jeffrey Hammelman’s Bread
Whereas Peter Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice was an excellent primer to explain the 12-stage process of bread making, I wanted to learn more, and also get a wider variety of 100% sourdough breads (with no commercial yeast). So I purchased the book “Bread” by Jeffrey Hammelman. Reinhart’s book was great, but I was still relying on a levain formula from weekendbakery.com. And that recipe called for a period with multiple stretch and folds. Hammelman’s book explains the stretch-and-fold technique, and what its purpose is. This was the missing link for me– with this process explained, I was able to better master the bread making process, and understand what each step was for and why it was important.
So after a month of baking sourdough loaves weekly, I finally settled on a good recipe that has become our daily bread.
The right combination ended up being a sourdough loaf made of 70% bread flour, 15% whole wheat flour (fermented in the levain), and 15% rye flour. The rye flour was the missing component, that really made the bread delicious.
I also managed to get control of the oven temperature. I think the oven ran a bit hot, so after pre-heating the oven at 500 degrees Fahrenheit, I dropped the temperature way down from 425 degrees to 400 degrees.
A last touch that I discovered is that if you slash a round loaf with parallel cuts, the bread opens up at the slashes such that the resulting loaf is oval shaped and not round. And the oval shape is the perfect shape for slicing into even slices.
So I managed to get a great tasting loaf, that has good volume and looks great! This is a great accomplishment.
:: Equipment on hand:
:: – Scaling: Digital scale – Terraillon Carre Inox
:: – Mixing: by hand
:: – Bulk Fermentation container: Stainless Steel kitchen bowl
:: – Dough Scraper/Cutter: Plastic scraper
:: – Proofing: Glass kitchen bowl
:: – Baking: Unglazed baking stone